a. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates to an apparatus, system and methods for determining the hardness of a surface, and in particular, the instant disclosure relates to a device, system and methods for determining the impact attenuation or hardness of a surface for a playground or sports field in order to mitigate or reduce sports and playground related injuries.
b. Background Art
In the United States alone, over 100,000 children go to the emergency room every year because of a fall onto a playground safety surface, which represents over 50% of all playground injuries. Between 1999 and 2000, 31 children died as a result of a fall onto the safety surface. Equally concerning is that brain injuries for this group continues to be on the rise since 2004 with over 110,000 children age 14 and under suffering a sports related traumatic brain injury. In 2012 nearly 4,600 children in the United States under the age of five suffered from a traumatic brain injury on the playground. While United States statistics are reported herein, this is a worldwide issue.
In an attempt to prevent these injuries, some playground owners install and maintain an impact attenuating safety surface in the use zone of the playground area. However, playground owners need data to assess which playground safety surface to use prior to purchase as well as, more importantly, data on how their safety surfacing is performing in use.
In the United States, it is estimated that there about 200,000 playgrounds at schools and local parks. These playgrounds are owned and operated by approximately 17,600 school districts and 9,900 city, county, state and federal park districts. Commonly there is overlap between these two segments for playground ownership and maintenance whereas the local park district will maintain and/or own the schools' playground.
According to Certified Playground Safety Inspector (CPSI) training, ASTM standards and Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines, playground owners are to install and maintain impact attenuating surfaces in the use zones around playground equipment. As an example, ASTM F1292, titled Standard Specification for Impact Attenuation of Surfacing Materials Within the Use Zone of Playground Equipment, establishes minimum performance requirements for the impact attenuation of playground surfacing materials installed within the use zone of playground equipment. ASTM F1292 is incorporated herein by reference.
Additionally, CPSI training recommends playground owners inspect and maintain the playground surface and keep maintenance logs proving the surface was inspected and maintained to provide critical fall height protection. However, playground owners lack a quick, cost effective and convenient way to assess the impact attenuation provided by the safety surface as part of the routine playground maintenance schedule. Therefore, most playground owners and CPSIs can only report that the surface was visually inspected and maintained to a certain depth but they cannot routinely test and verify in the field that it is providing sufficient impact attenuation to prevent injuries.
Today, the safety of a playground surface is determined by assessing its risk to generate a Critical Brain Injury at a given fall height. This is done by conducting a test set out in ASTM Standard F1292, and in particular ASTMF1292-13, all of which are incorporated by reference herein. This test primarily utilizes a Triax2010 manufactured by Alpha Automation to determine the critical fall height of a playground safety surface. Similarly, in Europe, the test standard is the EN1177, incorporated by reference herein.
However, the current test equipment is prohibitively expensive for mass market use and the level of acceptable injury risk allowed from a fall onto a playground safety surface is outdated. Today, in large part, playground owners unknowingly subject children to high risk levels of a fatality or Critical Brain Injury should they fall, and they lack a quick, convenient method to assess that risk.
Because the current test equipment is too expensive for a playground owner to purchase and maintain and too cumbersome and fragile for frequent use, most playground safety surfaces are evaluated in a lab prior to purchase and installation, instead of in the playground once it is installed and in use.
The level of acceptable risk allowed during a fall onto a playground safety surface is severely outdated and other industries have taken great steps to limit risks. A playground safety surface is deemed safe and acceptable if it generates a Head Injury Criterion (HIC) value of 1,000 or less. A 1,000 HIC translates into a 2% risk of a fatality and an 8% risk of a non-recoverable brain injury as a result of a fall onto the surface.
The automobile industry provides a much safer environment for its occupants. For example, for a car to earn a “Good” rating in a NHTSA 40 MPH front offset crash, the HIC cannot exceed 560. For a car to earn a “Poor” rating the HIC cannot exceed 840, as compared to a 1,000 HIC allowed on a playground. For comparison, a 500 HIC translates into a 0% risk of a fatality and a 2% risk of a non-recoverable brain injury.
As such, there is a need for a cost effective and convenient solution for playground owners to assess the impact attenuation of the surfacing materials and keep a maintenance log of those assessments. The instant disclosure provides such advantages and solutions.